Houston's Beauty Babes

They're not just pretty faces—meet the women behind the city's most coveted brands in makeup and skincare

Purisa

When Houstonians Ana Fields and Jessica Rosales—a biochemist and a pharmaceutical sales rep, respectively—first met, they bonded over a love of skin care. Last year, they decided to turn their passion into a product line, and the result is Purisa, an organic collection formulated to work on even the most sensitive skin. "My two sons had eczema," Rosales says. "But after we eliminated chemicals in their environment, their skin healed." The duo’s dermatologist-tested collection of 12 products is free of fragrances, sulfates, parabens, mineral oils and phthalates. What it does contain are plant-derived extracts like gotu kola (to stimulate collagen), dandelion (to attack free radicals) and horsetail (to regenerate skin cells). "Our small batches and handcrafted approach allow us to maintain a high level of quality and purity," Fields says.

They're not just pretty faces—meet the women behind the city's most coveted brands in makeup and skincare

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Houston's Beauty Babes

They're not just pretty faces—meet the women behind the city's most coveted brands in makeup and skincare

Sunday Riley

The creator of the product line that bears her name says she's been obsessed with anti-aging skin care since she was 12. That’s when Sunday Riley's grandmother first taught her about the skin-healing benefits of botanicals. Her ancestors were among the original settlers in Texas, and they learned to live off the land with the help of Native Americans; this heritage is a cornerstone of Riley's beauty business. In treatments like her Good Genes with NV-5 Ageless Complex, which flies off the shelves at Barneys and Sephora, she combines her passed-down family knowledge of natural skin care remedies with lab-tested biotechnology. Riley recently added makeup to her collection, including easy-glide eyeliners.

They're not just pretty faces—meet the women behind the city's most coveted brands in makeup and skincare

Tags:

Houston's Beauty Babes

They're not just pretty faces—meet the women behind the city's most coveted brands in makeup and skincare

Beauty for Real

Thanks to heavenly lip glosses, nail polishes and mascara whose packaging features LED lighting and built-in mirrors, Beauty for Real products have been making their way into the city's chicest clutches. Created by local makeup artist Tonya Riner (and her pal Leslie Munsell, a Miami-based pro), the line is made for flawless applications on the go—and it’s packed with therapeutic ingredients like avocado oil, collagen, and extracts of green tea, grapeseed and aloe. "It's not enough to make pretty colors. We're creating formulas that deliver anti-aging and skin-perfecting benefits in high-functioning packaging," Riner says. Her must-have is Get Glowing!, a cheek tint and luminizer duo containing the patented ingredient Luminera. "I went without it one day and had a few friends ask if I was feeling okay," she laughs. "Never again."